Parents urge Pasadena Unified to prioritize student stability and halt school closures amid post-fire displacement

Several parents and community leaders told the Pasadena Unified advisory session that any plan to close or consolidate schools would deepen trauma for families still displaced by recent fires.

At the start of public comment a woman who identified herself in the record as "Ajarte" (the clerk called the first speaker "Sahar Yurate") said her family’s home burned in January, they have moved six times in the last year and San Rafael Elementary has been one of the few steady supports for her children. "I am asking for transparency and sensitivity," she said, urging the board to allow families time to adjust if the district pursues renovations or consolidation.

Warren Bleaker told the board that closing schools should be a last resort. He cautioned that students who change schools midstream face long-term academic impacts and said the district should use bond funds already raised for improvements rather than pursuing closures that may not reduce costs. "Closing a school like Marshall does not eliminate costs," he said, arguing that prior consolidations had not produced the promised savings.

Lisa Cruy, identified as president of the PTA council, criticized a proposed $230,000 allocation tied to a consolidation planning process and asked for a clear, line-by-line accounting of projected savings. "This is not transformation, this is contraction," she said, urging the board to pursue strategic planning instead of repeated closures.

A parent who appears in the record as Rebeca (the transcript contains both "Benker" and later "Maker") described Marshall as "a place of refuge" after the fire and implored the board to seek other solutions. "Our children deserve better," she said, urging the board to reconsider closure options.

The officials who heard the comments repeatedly told speakers the session was an advisory discussion: facilitators and board members said no formal closure decision has been made and that the committee being formed will study data and return recommendations for a later, formal board vote.

The board and staff said they would provide more data to the consolidation advisory committee, including enrollment projections and geographic maps, and that any formal policy change would require a future motion and a public vote.

The advisory session closed with a reminder that formal action must comply with the Brown Act and with staff tasked to prepare the information the committee requested.